Packing device



Sept. 17', 1929. c. w. GELACH 1,'7-Z8f753 PACKING DEVICE Filed March 23, 1929 Patented sept. y17, 1929 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CHARLES W. GERLACH, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO CHICAGO MILL AND LUMBEB CORPORATION, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE PACKING DEVICE Application led March 23, 1929. Serial No. 349,891.

This invention relates to packing devices and more particularly to a construction for safely and effectively' packing for shipment highly finished cabinets such as radio and phonograph cabinets or other and similar articles of furniture. One object of the invention is to provide a )acking device which, while atl'ording a saie and effective packing construction, at the same time facilitates the packing operations. A further object of the present invention is the provision of a collar-like packing member which is adapted to surround a cabinet and hold it in spaced relation to the inner walls of the packing case and which can be stored, preliminary to its being used, in a space of minimum slze.

To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvements and combinations of parts, all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings, illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a packing case illustrating diagrammatically a preferred manner of securing a cabinet or similar article of furniture therein;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the collar member showing how the same may be collapsed or folded to take up a minimum amount of space; and

Fig. 3 is a detail view in section taken substantially along line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several views indicate the same parts.

The present embodiment of the invention provides an extremely simple, effective and safe packing construction for fine articles of furniture such as radio and phonograph cabinets and is designed to provide the utmost security in packing as well as to permit the packing operation to be speeded up without in any way increasing the liability of mar.

ring or otherwise injuring the cabinets during the packing operation. The construction of the collar member of the present invention is particularly advantageous for the reason that the several parts of the collar can be completely assembled ready for use and, after up of plywood formed, for example, of three ply veneer. The four sides, to and bottom are all constructed in substantially the same manner and form independent elements each of which comprises a panel 13 and frame 14.. The acking cases are usually made up ready for tlie reception of a cabinet by assembling five of its sides and leaving one of the sides oil' until the cabinet has been inserted within the case. In the present instance the side desi ated A will be left off until the cabinet 1s in place and partly secured.

The collar member 12 comprises two pairs of link members 15, 15 and 16, 16 which are preferably but not necessarily made of Wood strips. The links forming the collar member 12 are of a length to correspond to the several dimensions of the cabinet which is to be packed. For purposes of illustration the cabinet is herein shown with one dimension longer than the other; therefore links 16 of the collar 12 are longer than the companion links 15. The width and thickness of the Wood strips which form the links 15 and 16 is in general immaterial. It has been found in practice that strips o'f a thickness of approximately three-fourths of an inch and from an inch to an inch and one-half in width are entirely suitable for the purposes of the present invention. An essential fea- 90 ture, however, is to so correlate the size of the packing case and the width of the strips that the collar after assembly on the cabinet will substantially fit the interior of the case.

In practice suitable packing material will be 95 placed between the collar and the sides of the cabinet to avoid anylikelihood of the cabinet being scratched or marred.

The links/ which comprise the collar member may be`secured at their ends to each other 19 in various manners but preferably the links are so connected to each other as to provide for pivotal movement therebetween. While various securing elements, such as bolts or screws, may be used to pivotall7 connect the links, for the sake of simplicity and economy, the links are herein illustrated as being secured together by means of nails 17 which, after being driven through, are turned over or clinched in a well known manner as shown in Fig. 3.

For convenience in arranging the collar 12 on a cabinet one of the pivotal connections between the links is preferably made separable, and, for this purpose, one of the nails 17 may be left unclinched. In practice a relatively short nail will be used at this point so that it will not project through and beyond both links and therefore will readily fullill its function as a separable pivotal connection without any extra precaution on the part of the workman. As will be later referred to more at length, the separable connection between two lof the links of the collar permits the collar to be opened and fitted around the cabinet after which the separable connection may be re-secured.

The various links 15 and 16 may be arranged as desired but the are preferably arranged as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, that is, one pair of the links, herein shown as links 15, lie in what may be called the same plane while the other two links are secured one on one side and one on the other side of the links 15. This arrangement of the links permits them to be collapsed or folded as shown in Fig. 2 in which condition it will be obvious that the collar units will take up a minimum amount of space in storage and in shipment in the form of bundles.

In the assembly of the links to form the collar member care is exercised to space the nails properly so that the distances between the pivots atopposite sides of the collar are substantially equal to thus provide a substantially accurate parallelogram arrangement and to insure that no difiiculty will be encountered in collapsing or folding the collar units for purposes of storage or shipment.

While only a single collar is disclosed in the present drawings it will be obvious that two or more collars may be used if desired. In practice it is customary to provide one collar near the top and one collar near the bottom for cabinets of the proportions shown in Fig. 1.

lVhen it is desired to use the construction of the present invention the packer will first make up a packing case 10 with one of its sides, as for example side A, left off. The packer will select a collar of the proper size, the collars being for this purpose stored at a convenient point in a collapsed condition as shown in Fig. 2, and he will then open up such collar and separate the links at the point where the unclinched nail has been driven in. Suitable packing material, such as soft padding, will be placed around the cabinet so asl to lie between the links and the sides of the cabinet or, if desired, small pads of felt or equivalent material can be glued on the inner side of the collar so as to bear against the sides of the cabinet. The packer will next place the collar around the cabinet and resecure the separated pivotal connection thus frictionally holding the collar in place on the cabinet. In practice sufficient acking material will be used between the co lar and the sides of the cabinet to snugly hold the collar in place after the separable pivotal connection is re-secured.

After one or more of the collars have been secured on a cabinet in the manner just described, the cabinet will then be slid within the packing case already prepared after which the collar is preferably secured to the packing case by suitable nails or screws. In the present instance the collar is secured in place by driving nails 18, 18 through the out.- side of the panel frame 14 into the ends of the links 15 and 16 substantially as illustrated. yAfter the collar has been secured' at several points the remaining wall A will be attached to completely enclose the cabinet.

lt is not necessary in every instance to fasten the collar in place within the packing case by means of nails driven through from the. outside of the case. In some instalices, especially where the construction 0f the cabinet is s `h that the collar will be positively held in ace thereon, all that will be necessary is to complete the construction of the ease so that the sides make contact with the collar on each side thereof. Thus the walls of the packing casethemselves serve as a means for securing the collar therewithin.

The cabinet, after having the collar assembled thereon, is preferably inserted within the packing case in such manner that the link at the rear wall (that is, the wall opposite the open side of the case) will be disposed on the upper side of its two adjacent links 15, 15. This manner of packing is preferable for the reason that in the possible event that the nails driven into the ends of the collar split one or more of the pieces this piece at the rear will not tend to drop down but will be held in place by the end of the links 15, 15. It is apparent that if the rear link 16 is secured on the under sides of links 15, 15 and any splitting occurred the link 16 might become displaced and drop down during shipment with a consequent marring of the linished sides of the cabinet. It is not so material that thelink adjacent the front or open side of the cabinet be thus supported for the reason that the packer can readily see whether the nails which are being driven in are in proper place. The danger therefore of splitting thelinks at the front is slight and the packer can always easily determine Whether the front link 16 is likely to remain in place.

'lVhen the cabinet, packed as above described, reaches its destination and it is desired torunpack the Same, one side of the packing case, in the present instance either side A or the side opposite thereto. is removed by prying it away from the adjacent side walls of the case. The next operation is merely to loosen and remove the front link 1G from against the front wall of the cabinet after which the cabinet may be slid outwardly of the packing case without any possibility of damaging its finish. 'l'he nails in each ofthe remaining three links of the collar will hold the same in place and serve as a guiding means for the cabinet as it is being slid outwardly of the packing case and the packing material between the links and the cabinet walls will facilitate such outward sliding.

l `rom the foregoing it will be apparent that there is irovided a simple and economical packing device that enables tine articles of furniture such as radio cabinets and similar articles to be safely and securely packed as well as safely unpacked by workmen who are relatively unskilled. The collar member of the. present invention is constructed in a simple but etl'eetive manner to permit of its being Iliade up in quantitiesl ready for use in the packing operation and is so constructml that after il is made it can be collapsed or folded to take up a minimum space thus greatly facilitating freight shipments since. they can be. compactly stored in a freight ear and also facilitating storage and handling at the users warehouse.

While the present description sets forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, numerous changes may be made in the construction without departing from the spirit of the invention. and it is therefore desired that the present embodiment be considered in all `respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference heilig had to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.

The word cabinet where used in this specification and in the claims appended hereto is intended to include any article such as furniture and similar objects having a surface which requires to be protected to prevent its being scratched or otherwise marred.

I claim:

1. A packing element for cabinets comprising a collar adapted to surround a cabinet and to maintain said cabinet in spaced relation to the walls of a surrounding packing case, said collar being formed of a plurality ol' links pivotally connected at their ends, and means for readily engaging and disengaging the pivotal connection between two of said links whereby said collar may be readily assembled on a cabinet.

2. v A packing element for cabinets comprisingl a collar adapted to surround a cabinet an secure said cabinet in spaced relation to the walls of a surrounding packing case, said collar being formed of a. plurailty of links pivotally connected at their ends, means for readily engaging and disengaging thepivotal connection between two of said links whereby said collar may be readily assembled on a cabinet, and means for securing said collar within said packing case.

3. A packing element for cabinets comprising a collar adapted to surround a cabinet and to maintain said cabinet spaced from the inner surface of the walls of an enclosing packing case, said collar comprising four link members pivotally connected at their ends to l'orm a parallelogram arrangement, means for readily engaging or disengaging the pivotal connection between two of tlte said link members whereby said collar lnay be readily placed around the cabinet, and means for securing said collar in place within a packing case after it has been assembled on the cabinet.

4. A packing element for cabinets adapted to maintain a cabinet in spaced relation to the walls of an enclosing packing case comprising a parallelogram arrangement of links pivoted together at their ends, the links forming one pair of opposite sides of said parallelogram being connected respectively at opposite sides of the remaining pair of links whereby the assembled links maybe collapsed to lie .substantially in the same alignment thus permitting a plurality ot' such units to be packed in a bundle with a minimum loss of space.

5. A packing collar for separating a cabinet lfrom its enclosing packing case and for spacing the cabinet from the walls of said packing case which comprises a parallelogram arrangement of pivotd link members in which one of a pair of oppositely disposed links is secured at one side of the intermediate pivotal links and the other link of said pair of oppositely disposed links is pivotally secured on the other side of the intermediate, links whereby the collar may be collapsed to permit all of the link members to lie in substantial alignment, thus permitting a plurality of such collars to be bundled in a minimum volume.

6. A packing element for cabinets comprising a collar adapted to surround a cabinet and to maintain said cabinet in spaced relation to the walls of a surrounding packing case, said collar being formed of a pluf rality of links connected adjacent their ends, at least one of said links being pivotally connected at one of its ends to an adjacent link, and the other end of said first mentioned link being removably connected to the end of another link.

7. A packing device comprising a packing case having a removable front wall, said case being of a Size to contain a cabinet with a space between the cabinet and the inside of the ease, a collai` adapted to surround said cabinet, said eollar comprising a reetangular frame, formed of four links pivotally eonneeted to eaeh other adjacent their ends. the links forming one pair of opposite sides ot' .said eollar heilig connected respeetively atr opposite sides of the remaining pair of links whereby the assembled links are adapted to be collapsed to lie substantially in the saine alignment, the eollar being so disposed in said packing ease that the link adjaeent the removable front Vall will be below the adjacent links to which it is ronnected.

8. A method of paeking Cabinets whit-h eoniprises providing two pairs ot' lilik niembers. tht` links of each pair being of substantiall)V equal length. eonneeting the ends between two of said links in a separable inanner and connecting the remaining ends of said links in a permanent pivotal manner, said links being disposed relatively to eaeh other so that links of equal length are opposite eaeh other to thus forni a parallelogram eollar arrangement, openingr the eollar thus formed by said links at its separable eonneetion, plaeing the eollar about a eabinet` re,-seeuring said separable eonneetion to eause the eollar to snugly engage the sides of said eabinet. plat-ing the cabinet with the eollar secured thereto in a paeking ease having, l'or the purposev` at least one side lel't oll, and thereafter completing the construetion of said packing case to forni a package.

Signed at (lhieago, Illinois, this 16th day ol' March, 1929.

CHARLES lV. GERLACH. 

